2/13/14

Hey Mom,

Things are going really well here. This area is an arid climate like Utah just no snow at all. The record low temperature here is like fifty degrees. Here is a very agricultural area so there are a lot of farm boys. The ward is very good. They are the most reverent people i have yet seen here in Bahia. Which is actually saying a lot. My companion is great. He will be the next Assistant. He just doesnt know it. He is a really good worker.

I have been getting a little homesick as well. Everybody asks me how much time i have left. Even people on the street that i talk to. It is like the Devil is trying to get me trunky.

The Elder that has a short fuse we have really worked with and he actually really likes all the people in the house. He really is a good missionary and has a really big heart. He is just super sensitive. He takes meds for his anger issues. We have really worked with him to improve his techniques and working abilities and so far they have baptized two weeks in a row and look like they will get another one this week. We unfortunately have not had this success. We have many people that are so close and just need to take the step. We are constantly trying to find new people yet are not able to find them.

Please pray that we can find more men in Santa Barbara. We have a group there and really need men to make it a branch. Also pray for Juarez to accept the Gospel and be baptized. He is the one that has the house that we use for meetings on sunday. His wife is baptized and his daughter too. He knows the church is true ,we think, yet is to proud to humble himself and ask God. He is a really good man. He just needs to accept the fullness and not content himself with a part truth.

You know what is funny? Wrestleing was the only sport that i really loved. It was such a challenge that made me push myself. That and i was in charge and did not depend on others for success. I really regret not continuing it. That is just a difference in opionion however.

Well any way I really love you mom. Have a good week :)

02/03/14

Dear Mom,

Things are going well here. I dont have a lot of time today. Since i am a ZL I have to send in the numbers by email and it took forever today. You can go ahead and give her the address there is no problem in that.

That is a really cool story about Colby and his Book of Mormon giving. I am realy glad that he has done so well. Before he went on his mission i was constantly encouraging him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He would tell me about his progress of where he was at and everything. It was fun to see him doing it.

For one thing I am pretty sure that i have a pre paid phone card since i left the US so I should be ok there. I dont think they sell them down here. If they did I dont think that it would work in the US. Oh well. Sorry the email is short today. I will write more next week

Love

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1/27/14

Hey Mom,

Well that sounds like an absoloute nightmare. I hope that i never get vertigo. Glad you are feeling well though.

My new area is great  :) It is a city called Feira de Santana. I am the ZL and my companion is about five foot three. Haha its funny to see us walking down the street. I dont know why but President decided to put two elders that take meds together and they are living in the house with us. So far so good but i am afraid that the one that has anger issues will explode at some point.

I have a funny story. So on Friday the Bishop asked me to give a talk on Sunday. I asked him how long i should plan for and he said well five to fifteen minutes and we will see how long on Sunday. So Saturday night i get together something that would go on for about ten minutes. Sunday arrived and we went to church. I saw the bishop and he didnt say anything to me. I figured that he forgot or that i would be the first speaker. Sacrament meeting for me was trying to get a little six year old girl to be quiet since her Grandmother didnt come. Bishop annouced the first two speakers and it wasnt my turn. I relaxed and continued to play with the little girl. The intermediate hymn ends and i wasnt paying the least amount of attention to the bishop because the little girl decided that she wanted to go home and i was trying to get her to stay for another twenty minutes. All of a sudden I hear "Elder!" from my companion. I look up and everyone in the congregation is staring at me expectatnly. I was selected to be the last speaker... Needless to say that was rather awkward. I went up and gave my talk a little bit improvised and we ended the meeting without a hitch. Bishop thanked me and then asked "Did you forget?" I said no and that i figured that he forgot because he didnt say anything to me.

Well you know me. I am prone to have these things happen.

I loved those moose pictures hahaha they are awesome.

Dont worry about the email thing. I really dont care that much. It is just nice to hear from people once in a while.

Sorry about the birthday wish to dad. I forgot to punctuate it correctly.

The souveniers that i will buy will be the same ones as anywhere else it will just be cheaper here. That is the nice part about it.

Joe is going to be a dad!!! Dude...

Love your goofy son

01/11/14

Dear Mom,

I was just giving you a hard time about the trunky thing :)

It looks like i will go to Feira de Santana. It is the second largest city in Bahia and is a major agricultural capitol of Brazil. People come from all over the country to buy and sell there. Almost all the missionaries love the areas in Feira de Santana and have a very good time there. It appears that i will be a Zone leader for my last two transfers. It should be an adventure. My zone new zone has more sisters than any other zone. That should be interesting.

The baptisms that we had lined up didnt go through. One of them decided to extend his vacation till the twentieth and the other two just dissapeared. We did find another young lady though that has been to church several times and seems to be very excited to be baptized and better her life. Her mother "signed" her baptismal form yesterday. She couldnt actually sign her name so she just put an x there. We will visit her tonight again and see how she is doing.

It is a very good feeling to see somebody come out of the waters with just a happy look on their face. Knowing that they have made a choice that makes the Lord happy and their lives better is a very cool feeling. I am extremely grateful to be a part of this wonderful work.

Today was my second to last pday on saturday. Next week i will send an email on saturday and then you wont get one till the following monday. We went to an old castle today with President and Sister Hart. We took lots of pictures and videos to show when i get home. It was way cool. Traffic was terrible though so that is why the email is so late today.

I was already reeimbursed of that payment. I have the cash with me and am saving it until later in case i need it again or if there is something that i really want to buy. There will be a lot of cheep stuff in Feira so that should be a really good opportunity to get cheap souveniers.

Any way I love you mom :)

Have a great week.

Love 

01/06/14

Happy birthday!!! Feliz aniversario! Senhor velho ;)

Happy birthday Dad. I dont know how old you are nor what day your birthday is really on. However I do love you and wish you success and happiness on your special day :)

Love

--

Elder Jensen

01/13/14

That sounds like a rough adventure on the sled.  The work is going well although not as well as it could be. We have about four people that should have been baptized already but havent because of the end of the year nonsense that goes on. We were supposed to baptize them all yesterday but that didnt happen. We will visit them and try and get them to go in the water on wednesday before their gas runs out. We are very limited on our time here in the office which makes it rather hard to get a large group going. However this week we are going to do a division with the ZLs on wednesday ,which is our day in the field, so we should be able to find more people. If you could put in a prayer or two for Miller, Cristiane, Gildete, and Stefanie that would be appreciated. They need all the help they can get to maintain there focus.

I will leave to my last area next week. If all goes according to plan i will be a zone leader. That should be fun. They are putting me in the zone that has the most sisters in it. That could be...interesting.

Congratulations on becoming a High Priest! What are the requirements to be made one? I have never found out what the requirements are.

Any way have a good week :)